Pro-gov’t daily sets up hotline for informing on Gülen followers in EU


Date posted: June 21, 2017

The pro-government Sabah daily’s Europe edition, Sabah Avrupa, has set up a telephone line for its readers to report followers of the faith-based Gülen movement, against which Turkish authorities launched a witch hunt over its alleged involvement in a failed coup last summer.

On its front page on Tuesday, Sabah Avrupa published a telephone number for its readers to call to report Gülen followers and said: “FETO report line. Traitor FETÖ members. Don’t think we have forgotten you! To our readers in Europe: Report those traitors [Gülen followers] who tyrannized you and we will uncover them.”

FETÖ is a derogatory term used by government circles to refer to the Gülen movement.

Earlier In February, German police teams raided the apartments of four Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DİTİB) imams in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate who were suspected of acting as informants. The coordinator of DİTİB, mainly supported by the Turkish Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), Murat Kayman, announced his resignation over the allegations.

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (GBA) said in a statement that the imams had acted on an order issued on Sept. 20 of last year by the directorate to profile Gülen movement sympathizers.

In December 2016, Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens announced that he had ordered security and intelligence units in the country to closely monitor mosques operated by the Diyanet amid reports that the directorate had asked imams to spy and inform on Belgians of Turkish origin suspected of being active in the faith-based Gülen movement.

Despite repeated statements by US-based Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, whose views inspired the movement, and Gülen-linked institutions abroad denying involvement in the failed coup, followers of the movement have been subjected to harassment, discrimination and even assault by pro-government people.

Several Gülen sympathizers working in Gülen-linked institutions were handed over to Turkish authorities after being detained by local police in several countries as part of the Turkish government’s witch-hunt against the Gülen movement overseas.

Source: Turkish Minute , June 21, 2017

Tags: | | |


Related News

Main opposition deputy head slams gov’t for targeting Hizmet Movement

Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Faruk Loğoğlu criticized government, which signaled Hizmet Movement should be included in “Red Book,” a national security document in which major threats against the nation are enumerated, on Thursday.

How strong is the Gülen movement in France?

Nihat Sarier, the president of the Parisian Platform, who defines his society as ‘a centre for reflexion, debate and social action inspired by the ideas of Gülen’, before admitting ‘it is true that it organized several thematic trips to Turkey, focused on secularism, minorities’ rights, women’s rights, in partnership with French institutions’.

Lawyer of arrested officers detained for Gülen movement propaganda

Lawyer Kemal Uçar, known for his critical statements concerning July 15, 2016 coup attempt cases, has been detained as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, Milliyet daily reported. Uçar used to share messages on social media that the ByLock mobile phone app cannot be used as evidence to arrest people. Uçar said on a TV program that 52 of 58 casings found in Taksim on the coup night were not fired by soldiers according to an official report.

Halki, pope, patriarch and Gülen

The way Turkey’s chief political Islamist and new president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has approached the reopening of the Halki seminary, a school that had trained Eastern Orthodox clergy for the Patriarchate for more than a century until it was forcibly shut down in 1971, represents a fundamental flaw in the thinking of so-called Islamists, who place more emphasis on symbolism than substance and like very much to employ divisive and hateful discourse as opposed to reaching out and embracing different faiths and cultures.

GYV lashes out at ‘traitor’ label for attending EU ambassadors meeting

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), in a written statement, has denounced some media outlets’ labeling the body a “traitor” over its attendance at the traditional lunch meeting of the EU ambassadors. The statement criticized the allegations published in some media outlets which “in an effort to distort the truth and smear the foundation” said the GYV betrayed the country by attending such a meeting.

TUSKON says systematic campaign of defamation under way

The Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) has criticized what it calls a “systematic campaign of defamation against the business conglomerate,” stressing that its business activities, which help contribute to the Turkish economy, should be welcomed.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Dutch minister gives Turkish deputy a lesson on freedoms

Erdogan: A saint elsewhere, outside Turkey’s shores?

CHP Adana deputy lends support to mosque-cemevi project

Turkish schools and businessmen mobilized for Izmir’s EXPO candidacy

Associations, NGOs, banks launch aid campaigns for Soma victims

Kimse Yok Mu heals wounds in the Philippines

Picture of Turkish president Erdogan as Hitler projected onto Berlin embassy

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News